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Help us make hearing loss a thing of the past. Read more |
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Meet the Consortium Members
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HEARING RESTORATION PROJECT CONSORTIUM MEMBER BIOGRAPHIES
The Hearing Restoration Project is a Consortium made up of some of the most talented, creative, inspired researchers in the area of cell regeneration in the ear, both mid-level and senior-level investigators, whose work has already contributed significantly to the field. This alliance of scientists has pledged to work collaboratively and interactively with one another, sharing information and data to expedite the timeline to a cure.
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Dr. Peter Barr-Gillespie
Director of the Hearing Restoration Project
After undergraduate studies at Reed College in Portland, Oregon, Peter G. Barr-Gillespie attended graduate school at the University of Washington, where he received his Ph.D. in Pharmacology in 1988. He spent five years as a postdoc with Jim Hudspeth, first at the University of California, San Francisco, then at the University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center. He joined the Department of Physiology at Johns Hopkins University as an Assistant Professor in 1993 and rose to Associate Professor in 1998. In 1999 he joined the Oregon Hearing Research Center as an Associate Professor and the Vollum Institute as a Scientist. He was promoted to Professor in 2004 and granted tenure in 2007.
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Dr. John Brigande
Oregon Health & Science University
Dr. John Brigande (Oregon Health & Science University) currently holds the position of Associate Professor of Otolaryngology and is jointly appointed as Associate Professor of Cell and Developmental Biology. The Brigande lab vision is to establish gain and loss of function experimental paradigms to define gene function in the developing mammalian inner ear. To address these goals, plasmids and viruses are injected with a micro pipette into the developing mouse otocyst in utero. This technique enables Dr. Brigande's team to evaluate embryos prenatally or neonatally, and identifies genes critical for morphogenesis and cell fate specification.
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Dr. Alain Dabdoub
University of Toronto
Dr. Alain Dabdoub (University of Toronto) is an assistant professor in the Department of Otolaryngology–Head and Neck Surgery, a scientist at the Sunnybrook Research Institute, and the research director at the Sonja Koerner Hearing Regeneration Laboratory. Dr. Dabdoub's research is focused on discovering and elucidating the molecular signaling cascades and transcription factors responsible for the development of the mammalian inner ear. The auditory system has an important biological function and provides an exemplary structure to study developmental processes. As a model system, the complex development of the cochlea enables Dr. Dabdoub and his team to study organo genesis, pluripotency, plasticity, cell fate specification, differentiation and pattern formation. The overarching question throughout our research is identifying the signaling molecules that specify the three main cochlear cell types -sensory, non-sensory, and neural.
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Dr. Albert Edge
Harvard Medical School
Dr. Albert Edge (Harvard Medical School) is currently an Associate Professor in the Department of Otolaryngology. At the Tillotson Unit for Cell Biology in the Eaton-Peabody Laboratory at the Massachusetts Eye and Ear Infirmary, Dr.Edge's research is focused stem cells and the basic mechanisms of cellular repair in the nervous system. Dr. Edge is also studying the loss of sensory cells in the inner ear that result in deafness due to excessive noise, drugs, disease, or aging.
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Dr. Andy Groves
Baylor College of Medicine
Dr. Andy Groves (Baylor College of Medicine) is currently an Associate Professor. Dr. Groves' laboratory uses the inner ear as a model system to address fundamental questions in developmental biology and regeneration, using the complementary approaches of chick embryology and mouse genetics to address these problems. Dr. Groves' laboratory has shown that the FGF and Wnt signaling pathways are critical in inducing the otic placode from embryonic ectoderm, and is currently characterizing two novel Forkhead transcription factors that may mediate these inductive events. Dr. Groves' is also interested in trying to understand the mechanisms of how different sensory organs, such as the organ of Corti in the cochlea, arose during vertebrate evolution.
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Dr. Stefan Heller
Stanford University School of Medicine
Dr.Stefan Heller (Stanford University School of Medicine) is a Professor in the Departments of Otolaryngology Head and Neck Surgery and Molecular and Cellular Physiology and an Associate Member of the Stanford Institute for Stem Cell Biology and Regenerative Medicine. Dr. Heller's focus is to develop solutions for reversing sensory hair cell loss in the mammalian cochlea using stem cell-based approaches. A second avenue of investigation is focused on lucidating on the molecular basis of our senses of hearing and balance.
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Dr. Michael Lovett
Imperial College London
Michael Lovett is Professor at Imperial College London. Dr. Lovett has been, and continues to be, a thought–leader in genomics and next generation sequencing. He is also the leader in applying genomics to the regenerative epithelia of the inner ear (most relevant to hearing loss and balance disorders) and to the genetic wiring of the vertebrate face. These insights and methodologies apply to many other systems, particularly the respiratory system. Dr. Lovett’s expertise covers genomics, computational biology, developmental biology, genetics and neuroscience.
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Dr. Liz Oesterle
University of Washington
Dr. Liz Oesterle (University of Washington) is a Research Associate Professor of Otolaryngology/Head and Neck Surgery Research Affiliate, Center on Human Development and Disability. Dr. Oesterle focuses on the anatomy and physiology of the inner ear, and her current research is aimed at identifying factors that can stimulate inner ear sensory epithelial cells to re-enter the mitotic cycle and stimulate the production of new receptor cells (hair cells).
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Dr. Tatjana Piotrowski
Stowers Institute for Medical Research
Dr. Tatjana Piotrowski (Stowers Institute for Medical Research) is an Associate Investigator. Dr. Piotrowski is studying how the sensory lateral line develops in zebrafish by analyzing mutants that affect this process. It consists of hair cells, which functionally and morphologically are very similar to the hair cells of the inner ear of higher vertebrates. Because of the similarity of structure and function of the hair cells in the ear and lateral line, it is likely that their development is based on similar genetic mechanisms. But unlike the hair cells of the inner ear, the hair cells of the lateral line system are directly exposed to the environment. Dr. Piotrowski's research focuses on the elucidation of these mechanisms by isolating the genes responsible for defects in these processes in mutants.
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Dr. David Raible
University of Washington
Dr. David Raible (University of Washington) is a Professor, Department of Biological Structure interested in how, during embryonic development, cells of the nervous system acquire their specific fates, so that they display the distinct characteristics necessary for their proper function. Dr. Raible and his team have been examining how neural crest cells make cell fate choices in the zebrafish embryo, an emerging vertebrate developmental system with distinct advantages for cellular, molecular and genetic study. By labeling cells with fluorescent vital dyes and following their migration in living embryos, by transplanting individual cells between embryos, and by specifically ablating subsets of neural crest cells, Raible's research has determined that interactions among neural crest cells themselves play a crucial role in sorting out the derivative types they will produce.
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Dr. Yehoash Raphael
University of Michigan
Dr. Yehoash Raphael (University of Michigan) is the R. Jamison and Betty Williams Professor of Otolaryngology and A. Alfred Taubman Medical Research Institute Scholar. He is also the Director of the Otopathology Laboratory at the Kresge Hearing Research Institute at the University of Michigan. Through his breakthrough research, Dr. Raphael and his team found a way to restore hair cells and hearing in deaf guinea pigs by injecting into the inner ear a gene that triggers the growth of hair cells during embryonic development.
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Dr. Edwin Rubel
University of Washington
Dr. Edwin Rubel (University of Washington) is currently in the Department of Physiology and Biophysics, the Department of Otolaryngology, at the Graduate Program in Neurobiology and Behavior, and at the Virginia Merrill Bloedel Hearing Research Center. Dr. Rubel's research focuses on the wide variety of methods and preparations in order to better understand development, plasticity, pathology and potential repair of the inner ear and auditory pathways of the brain.
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Dr. Neil Segil
Executive Vice President of Research at House Research Institute
Dr. Neil Segil (House Research Institute) is the Executive Vice President of Research at House Research Institute, a Principal Investigator, Scientist, and the Acting Director of the Division of Cell Biology and Genetics. He is also a Research Associate Professor in the Department of Cell and Neurobiology at the University of Southern California School of Medicine. Dr. Segil's research is focused on development aspects of cell cycle regulation in relation to the inner ear, hearing loss and regeneration.
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Dr. Jennifer S. Stone
University of Washington
Dr. Jennifer S. Stone (University of Washington) is currently a Research Associate Professor in the Department of Otolaryngology- Head and Neck Surgery. Dr. Stone's research at the Virginia Merrill Bloedel Hearing Research Center at the University of Washington focuses on the cellular and molecular mechanisms guiding embryonic and post-embryonic production of sensory hair cells in birds.
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Dr. Mark Warchol
Washington University School of Medicine
Dr. Mark Warchol (Washington University School of Medicine) is a Professor in the Department of Otolaryngology and at the Program in Audiology and Communication Sciences. Dr. Warchol's research focuses on the development and regeneration of sensory receptors and afferent neurons in the inner ear. Dr. Warchol and his team are particularly interested in determining the functions of the GATA3 and PAX2 transcription factors,which appear to regulate the differentiation of auditory neurons and vestibular hair cells, respectively.
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